The Rise and Fall of the Great Captain Usopp
"NO!! I can't!" The young sniper wailed. His scrawny arms desperately clutched at the wooden railing of the Thousand Sunny. "It's my case of 'I'll-die-if-I-fight-giant-spiders' disease! It's a very serious condition! Fatal!"
"Shut up you long-nose coward and go help your captain!" With a final heave, Nami wrenched Usopp from the boat and flung him onto shore. He landed with a crash, sand filling his mouth, nose and tear-filled eyes.
"You are so cruel Nami!!" Usopp cried.
Nami placed her hands on her hips and sighed dramatically. Her face creased in a deep frown while she looked down on her crewmate. "Your captain and first mate are stuck in that Zoan user's web and you're the only one who can help. Robin and Franky are poisoned and dying! And Brooke and Sanji are doing their best to hold off the guy so do your duty and fight! Aren't you supposed to be a brave warrior of the seas?"
Usopp sniffled at the harsh verbal attack. It was true, he'd been trying to be more manly but the New World was so much scarier than any other place they'd been before. When he finally returned to the crew after being separated by Kuma he thought all would be well again, but it was just one thing after another. The fiasco in Fishman Island should have tipped him off, not to mention the disaster with Kizaru on the desert island, and even the mix-up with Kaidou of the yonkou and Eustass Kidd on that resort island. And now this creepy spider-man person caught Luffy and Zoro?
"Nami…" He whined pathetically. "It's my, 'I'll-die-if-I-get-off-the-ship-in-the-New-World' disease! That's acting up now too!"
The young navigator looked contemptuously down at Usopp for a moment. He looked up at her hopefully, begging her with his eyes. In that instant her expression changed. The look of contempt vanished as her upper lip lifted in a sneer. Her eyes narrowed and she shook her head, walking down the plank and onto the shore. As she passed him, she spoke.
"You're useless."
Without another word she strode into the jungle, unhinging her Clima-Tact and disappearing into the woods. When he couldn't hear her anymore, Usopp turned and looked after her.
"I can't help it…you're all just monsters." He turned back to the ship and sullenly walked back up the plank and into the cabins.
"Nami is that you?" Chopper's voice rang from his medical suite.
Brightening, Usopp smiled and ran to the doorway, leaning against the frame. Inside he could see Chopper in his labcoat, frantically running back and forth between steaming vials of bubbling liquids.
"No, Chopper, it is I, the great captain Usopp!"
Without stopping his frantic work, Chopper replied. "What are you still doing here? They need your fire stars to burn the webs down!"
Usopp laughed to himself confidently. "Don't worry Chopper, the great captain Usopp has already taken care of those."
This time Chopper really did stop. Just for a moment. He turned to face Usopp. The sniper could see he wore the same expression Nami did. "You've been here the whole time, Usopp. I could hear you outside. You didn't go! They need you out there!"
Taken aback, Usopp began coughing vigorously. This wasn't the first time Chopper had seen through his lies. Since they'd come to the new World, the reindeer doctor had really grown up. He was still fun-loving and gullible from time to time, but when the pressure was on, he was straight-forward and reliable.
"H-hey now Chopper," Usopp stuttered. "They don't need me…my crew is strong enough to take care of themselves."
The look in Chopper's eyes became more fiery, more animal-like. He bared his teeth and growled. "Aren't they your nakama! Aren't they always saving you! What are you going to do for them!?"
Usopp blinked. He'd never seen Chopper like this before. "Whoa…Chopper calm down…"
"Calm down!" In an instant Chopper had exploded up to his human height, towering over Usopp. "Franky and Robin are both in comas, full to the brim with a deadly neurotoxin I don't recognize! Robin stopped breathing for thirty seconds before I could get her lungs working again, and I don't know if that will happen again!" Chopper's eyes were full of tears and Usopp himself had stopped breathing. He could feel Chopper's big fingers squeezing his shoulders while he was shaken. "So unless you're going to do something useful like get me a sample of the venom before it mixes with the bloodstream don't you dare tell me to calm down!"
And he pushed Usopp out into the hall, slamming the door of his office shut behind him. For a minute, Usopp stood there, frozen. What was happening? All around him his crew was going insane. Was the situation really so dire? Chopper was a great doctor, why was he so worried about this? He'd always pulled through before. And Nami…why was she so set on his help. They'd make it through ok…just like they always did. Luffy would snap his way out of that web at the last minute and beat down that spider freak no problem.
And then they'd all come back to the ship and have a big celebration. Just like always. He'd tell his jokes and boast about how he could send that monster flying with one punch. And they'd let their log post set on the next island and move on.
Usopp raised a hand to his eye and wiped away a tear. Nami and Chopper's words echoed in his head. Unless you're doing to do something useful…what are you going to do for them? Aren't you supposed to be a brave warrior of the seas? Aren't they your nakama?
You're useless.
"Shit!" With a surge of strength, he was off, dashing up to the deck and onto the shore. "Who the hell do you think I am! Huh!?" He burst into the forest, the leaves and vines slapping at his skin. "I'm the guy who attacked a tenryuubito at the auction house! I'm the guy who burned down the symbol for marine justice at Enies Lobby!" In the distance he could hear shouts and rolling thunder. He fight wasn't far ahead.
"I helped take down the giant zombie Oz! And the Baroque works!"
Through the foliage he could just barely make out movement. He was approaching the clearing.
"I am the great pirate captain Usopp!"
He burst through the foliage with his giant sling shot in hand.
A second later he had drawn back the pull.
A second after that he had fallen to his knees and dropped everything he'd been holding.
One more second and he had disappeared back into the foliage.
Panting in fear, he crawled to the nearest tree. The memory of what he'd seen mere moments ago made his arms weak. Zoro, Luffy, Sanji and Nami were all hopelessly entangled in a giant web held between two trees. Brooke had nearly collapsed and his sword cane was broken. Towering over him was a giant terrible spider, its mandibles glistening with poison as they clacked together dangerously. Zoro and Luffy had been very pale.
"Oh god…oh god oh god oh god!"
What had he been thinking? If his monstrous crewmates were all beaten by that monster what chance did he have? He really was useless wasn't he? He began to crawl because he felt too weak to walk. When had this happened? How had it turned out like this? He'd taken part in many battles and lived? He was just in over his head now. The New World was something beyond anything he'd ever experienced. What chance did a normal guy like he have out here?
"I'm sorry guys!" he croaked, his eyes filled with tears. "There just isn't anything I can do…"
Behind him he could hear Brooked let out pained scream.
"I'm nothing…nothing…you can't rely on a guy like me…not here…not like this."
Crawling faster and blinded by his tears he didn't notice the ditch in front of him. With a shriek he went tumbling forward, crashing heavily to the dirt. After a moment he righted himself, feeling a pain in his back from where he had hit a rock of some kind. Rubbing his back he grabbed the stone and picked it up, bringing his arm back to hurl the infernal object. As he swung his arm forward he let out a gasp though.
The stone left his grasp and fell to the ground a few feet away. But it wasn't a stone at all. Usopp stared blankly at the object with its whorl designs across its surface. It was shaped like an apple but it was a dark purple color.
"D-d-d-DEVIL FRUIT!!"
Usopp dove for the fruit and picked it up. He could hardly believe it. He pinched his arm hard and felt the sting before letting out a shout. It was real! He was really holding a devil fruit! A gift from the gods to give power to the masses. It could be anything! Paramecia? Zoan? Maybe even a logia! His heart was beating frantically. How much power was he holding in his hand?
He didn't thing of the consequences. He didn't think of the rest of his life without swimming ever again. He didn't think of being ostracized for a bizarre power. He didn't think of the option of receiving a useless power. In a second, the great pirate captain Usopp had ingested the devil fruit.
The first thing he noticed was the intense flavor.
"UGH!!!" I bent over, retching and coughing. "I've been poisoned! I'll die for sure! It wasn't a devil fruit at all!" He spat and screeched as he was bent over.
The second thing he noticed was more of a surprise.
Taking a deep breath, he made a violent spewing noise. He felt his body rise up in the air as an immense gust of wind exploded from his mouth and hurled him up into the trees. His eyes widened as he crashed into a thick trunk. He felt pain explode in his spine and then immediately disappear.
Usopp's consistent reaction to pain of any kind was, "I wish that hadn't happened." And so when the instant he thought this, the pain disappeared he opened his eyes in shock. Looking down he discovered that he was missing his body from the chest down.
He let out a scream that sent him careening through the forest, blasting through tree after tree as he blew powerful gusts from his lungs. Finally he landed on the ground, panting heavily. His mind raced with possibilities as he looked down at his legs which had reappeared.
He had just eaten a devil fruit. He was blowing strong gusts of wind. He disappeared when he was about to crash into the trees.
Looking cautiously at his arms, he focused on them, willing them to fade, to become…
Moments later Usopp burst into the clearing again, his face alight with confidence he had never felt before. Brooke turned to see what the sound was and grinned (as though he could do anything else).
"Yo ho hoooo~! It's you Usopp!"
Usopp smiled at his skeletal companion and then glared at the spider human standing before him.
"You, 8-legged freak! You've messed with the wrong crew!"
The things mandibles glistened and clacked together as it spoke back in a hiss. "Is that right long-nose? You one of them?"
"That's right, and I have an army of ten thousand battle hardened pirates at my back! Just waiting behind these trees. We have you surrounded!"
The spider raised four of its eight eyebrows. "Sure you do. Now stop wasting my time and die!"
"Usopp!" Nami's cry came from above where she was entangled as the spider dashed forward with impossible speed, powerful and sharp teeth coursing with venom screaming down toward the motionless Usopp.
"Yeah…I lied about the ten thousand…"
The great beast ripped through Usopp's neck like it was nothing…and then careened forward, stumbling in confusion. Usopp could hear Nami gasp. The enemy turned in surprise. "You're a fruit user!?"
Usopp let his body become corporeal again and turned, drifting up into the air weightlessly. "That's right…I'm the great captain Usopp! And I'm…" Grinning even wider he drew back his arms and swung them forward, launching powerful condensed air at the spider before him.
"A Wind man!"